Pitching: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

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Pitching: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

*As published in Fastpitch Magazine

I stood on the mound my sophomore year in college as the opposing team cheered in the dugout.  The hitter looked confident strutting up to the batter's box. She took extra time to knock the dirt off of her cleats before she put the bat up to her shoulder. Then she settled in and stared me in the eye. I stood up taller, followed my pre-pitch routine, and delivered my blazing fast curve ball right towards the - “BALL ONE!” Okay, no problem.  I beared down, focused on my catcher’s mitt and fired again.  “BALL TWO!” Although two balls in a row were not ideal, it is nothing that any good pitcher can not handle.  When the next two pitches buzzed in as “BALL THREE!” and “BALL FOUR!” the cheers from the opposing dugout resounded even louder. As the good Brian Cain says, “So what, next pitch,” that saying formulated then in my brain.

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College Coaches Recruit from Camps

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College Coaches Recruit from Camps

Here are some interesting things I learned that will help you:
1. Many college coaches are recruiting most of their players from camps, not tournaments.
2. A lot of college coaches recruit families, not players.  They need cooperative parents and are attracted to players who come from well developed travel programs because they, and their parents, have been groomed on how to conduct themselves.
3. The biggest problem college coaches see with pitchers, and other players for that matter, is that they have no idea how to deal with failure and are not tough....

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